Word: bakkers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Television preachers are a wary group these days. Along with their supporters, they tend to blame the press for many of their problems, particularly financial ones. TIME's correspondents who reported this week's cover stories on the fortunes of Jim and Tammy Bakker and their fellow televangelists faced constant reminders that their subjects are as widely noted for their business acumen as for their spiritual charisma. "To some critics," observes Chicago- based Correspondent Barbara Dolan, "these people appear to be almost comical with their emotional appeals. But that faith-healing showmanship can hide the mind of a Wall Street...
Along with Los Angeles-based Correspondents Michael Riley and Jon D. Hull, Dolan spent the past month digging into the finances and organization of Jim Bakker's Praise the Lord and other major television ministries. While waiting to see Oral Roberts at his university in Tulsa, Dolan came upon the famous faith healer, his pants rolled up, knee-deep in a medium-size artificial pond, where he was anointing 200 of the faithful. Recalls Dolan: "That scene gave me an insight into the impact of these television preachers on their followers...
...Hull and Riley, getting an insight into Jim Bakker proved a bizarre experience. As the pair interviewed the controversial PTL founder at his home in Gatlinburg, Tenn., the questions inevitably became sensitive. Bakker grew livid. Recalls Hull: "His eyes smoldered. He got more fidgety. Then he leaped from his living-room chair and dashed to the kitchen in a huff. I started to follow after him, but was dissuaded by Bakker's cadre of supporters, who said a prayer for us." To many of Bakker's admirers, reporters seemed to need straightening out. "I endured long lectures by Bakker...
...these ups and downs stem directly from accounts of the mismanagement, which reached epic heights, or perhaps depths, at PTL. From a jury-rigged studio, which began broadcasting in 1974 from an old furniture store in Charlotte, Jim and Tammy Bakker had nurtured a Christian entertainment colossus. But the mountains of documents at PTL show that the ministry ran, almost literally, on a wing and a prayer. At one time the ministry spent employee retirement funds to pay operating expenses. PTL had no reliable internal audits, no checks and balances for financial accountability and often no receipts or other devices...
...Tammy Bakker's surprise return to Heritage USA last week had all the markings of a media resurrection. Ending their Palm Springs, Calif., exile, televangelism's best-known couple flew to their house in the exclusive Tega Cay, S.C., 30 minutes from PTL headquarters, and held a nighttime press conference. Asked about their chances of ever returning to the financially troubled ministry, Bakker told reporters, "It will take a miracle. But we believe in miracles." Then Tammy fulfilled a promise she made two weeks ago and kissed the ground. Next day the Bakkers made a brief appearance at Heritage...